In addition to the 14nm Broadwell-U notebook chips announced earlier, Intel has also announced that it has started shipping 14nm Cherry Trail Atom architecture tablet chips to customers.

While it is good to hear that Intel has finally started to ship the successor to the Bay Trail SoC, these chips will most likely be available in actual products sometime in Q2 2015, or according to Intel, in the first half of the year. While Intel did not shed any light on the actual specifications of Cherry Trail SoCs, or the price, it did promise that all details will be unveiled once first Cherry Trail-based devices are announced, so we will keep our fingers crossed to see some first tablets at CES 2015.

For now, Intel only noted that the new architecture will bring improved graphics, improved performance as well as better battery life in both Android and Windows tablets. From earlier information we know that, beside being based on smaller 14nm node, Cherry Trail SoC will use the Airmont CPU architecture paired up with a cut-down Broadwell GPU and might even end up with 16 EUs, which should give it some impressive graphics performance.

Intel also noted that Cherry Trail can be paired with Intel XMM726x modem with Cat 6 LTE for cellular connectivity, which means that we might even see some smartphones based on these SoCs. It will also support Intel's RealSense technology as well as Wireless Display.

We didn’t manage to get many details about the notebook and tablet version of Intel's upcoming out-of-order core codenamed Braswell, but we have managed to get a few specifications of the desktop version.

The desktop Braswell comes with Intel Pentium or Celeron branding, in quad-core and dual-core versions. It appears that Intel will no longer use Atom branding for out-of-order desktop parts. Its maximum TDP is 10W which is acceptable for entry level desktop systems, small form factor and All-in-one computers.

The chipset supports dual channel DDR3L 1600 MHz memory and high speed SATA 3.0. It comes with four integrated USB 3.0 ports and a single USB 2.0 port. It has 4-lane PCI Express 2.09 at 5 GT/s. The graphics part has 16 executive units (EUs) and DirectX 11 support, as well as support for three independent displays with resolutions of up to 2560x1600.

Let's not forget the integrated 10/100 and 1000 Mbit LAN card as well as integrated audio SMI, LPC and SM Bus support. The Braswell SoC (System-on-Chip) will ship in BGA 25x27mm package.

Braswell is based on Intel's new Airmont 14nm out-of-order architecture. The ability to bring 14nm parts to the entry level market so fast will give Intel a competitive edge and put more pressure on AMD in this market segment.

Braswell SoC supports both Windows 7 or 8.1 and Google Chrome OS and as we have mentioned before it is targeted at entry level desktops and All-in-One (AIO) systems. Braswell SoC supports Linux and Android as well, but we are not aware of any plans to launch Linux or Android Braswell SoC machines.

Intel's Bay Trail is one of the more interesting parts to emerge from Chipzilla labs in recent years. Sure, we love big cores, but Haswell and Ivy Bridge did not offer nearly the same performance gains compared to their predecessors.

Bay Trail reinvented the Atom line-up, which was neglected by Intel for years. It also brought Windows 8.1 to new form factors, namely compact and affordable tablets. The company has now announced Braswell, the 14nm successor to Bay Trail-M and Bay Trail-D parts. Cherry Trail will replace Bay Trail in the tablet space.

Braswell targets loads of form factors

It appears that Intel has big plans for Braswell, as the 14nm SoC is supposed to be used in compact desktops, all-in-ones, 2-in-1s and of course notebooks. Intel is promising "amazing" form factors and "new users experiences."

In essence, Braswell will enable vendors to develop smaller, fanless PCs. Even Bay Trail is good at that game, since there are already a number of 10W desktop parts that ship on passive boards. The production process lead allows Intel to offer lower TDPs than AMD in this segment. AMD's GPU lead is still there, but most Jaguar-based products can't hit 10W. The latest socketed AM1 parts are still at 25W and the stock cooler is active. Last year Intel made it clear that 14nm Airmont-based products will feature Broadwell graphics, but by then AMD will bump up its SoC iGPUs as well.

There is still no launch date, though. Intel says it will spruce up Bay Trail later this year, with faster graphics and better overall performance. This leads us to conclude that Braswell parts will be announced somewhat later, possibly towards the end of the year, with availability in early 2015. The first 14nm tablet parts are expected to ship in late 2014.

Market opportunities for Braswell/Cherry Trail

Intel hopes to see 14nm SoCs in just about every conceivable market and form factor. It is going after cheap notebooks (which it no longer calls netbooks), Chromebooks, affordable 2-in-1s, entry lever AIOs and more.

Last year Intel said it plans to ship 40 million tablet parts this year, but these are Bay Trail-T parts. The next generation should do even better and from the looks of things, Intel will blur the lines between a number of form factors, maybe even platforms, thanks to dual-OS devices. Since Intel is hoping to quadruple its SoC shipments with Bay Trail, if it maintains its aggressive approach through 2015, shipments of 14nm SoC could easily surpass 100 million units next year, if not more.

Interestingly, Intel also demoed a 64-bit version of Android 4.4 KitKat at IDF Shenzen. It has a fresh 64-bit Kernel and it will boost development. It might also give Intel a competitive edge in some niches, although most Braswell designs will probably ship with Windows 8.x - although dual OS devices remain a possibility.

Intel seems to be focusing on updates for tablet devices next year according to leaked details of Intel’s ‘road map’ plans for 2014. Among the products rumoured is the Intel Bay Trail-T Z3735D processor, said to be set for arrival in Q1 2014. We mentioned it earlier this week.

The 1.33GHz quad-core processor, which is estimated to cost around $32(£20), is said to be designed to be incorporated into seven and eight-inch tablets in the $99 (£60) to $199 (£121) range. The smartphone platform was also described by WCCFTech which is codenamed ‘Merrifield’, the Android-compatible platform is also predicted for a Q1 2014 release.

Another tablet-focused processor, the ‘Cherry Trail’, is claimed to be targeted at Android and Window 8.1 devices, and will support the 64-bit Airmont architecture. The roadmap said that this will appear in September 2014 release. ‘Willow Trail,’ which is similar to Cherry Trail, but is said to use the Goldmont architecture will be out at the same time.

The smartphone-based platform, codenamed ‘Moorefield’, is the last release detailed on the leaked road map. The platform is expected to replace Merrifield, and will target the same devices next year.

Intel is starting to take tablets quite seriously and it appears to be getting ready to enter new market segments. In essence, Intel is joining the race to the bottom.

According to Digitimes, Intel’s new Bay Trail-based Z3735D is designed for use in low-end tablets, namely 7-inch designs in the $99 to $129 price range and 8-inchers priced at $149 to $199. The chip and the first actually products based on it, should appear in the first quarter of 2014.

More powerful Bay Trail and Cherry Trail parts will target the $199 to $249 segment, as well as the high end segment, which Intel apparently describes as 10-inch tablets priced at more than $249. Merrifield and Moorefield will go after phone design wins come Q3 2014, but the chips can also be used in Android tablets.

Things will get really interesting with the launch of Cherry Trail in September 2014. Based on the new 14nm Airmont architecture, Cherry Trail is already looking like the most potent mobile chip ever designed by Intel.

The next generation desktop and mobile Atom is Cherry Trail in 14nm and the first parts are expected in late 2014. Intel has been working hard to accelerate the introduction of Atom parts based on the new architecture and in 2014 it will finally ship Broadwell notebook chips and Cherry Trail Atoms in the same year, both using the new 14nm node.

The Cherry View is a notebook SoC version of a chip based on new Airmont core, while Cherry Trail is the part meant for tablets. The phone version is based on Moorefield architecture and they are all expected to show up in late 2014, most likely very late Q3 2014.

The TDP should go down compared to Bay Trail platform as the new 14nm needs less voltage to hit the same speed and should produce less heat at the same time. With the 14nm shrink Intel’s new Atoms will be able to get more fanless design wins.

The significance of 14nm products for mobile phones and tablets will be in the fact that ARM alliance lead by Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek and a few other players will be struggling to get 20nm designs out of the door in 2014, and Intel can already get to a 14nm.

However, Intel still has to integrate LTE inside its mobile phone SoCs, which has traditionally been proven to be a tough task. At this time only Qualcomm has on-die LTE and its LTE enabled SoCs are under the bonnet of almost every significant ARM based high-end phone out there.

Only time will tell how successful Intel’s mobile push will be. Even with these 14nm parts, once they show up roughly a year from now, it might be really tough for Intel to get some high-volume design wins in the phone space, despite the transition to 14nm.

At the end of his keynote Intel’s Hermann Eul, VP GM mobile communication group, mentioned what is to come in 2014.

He briefly mentioned the new Merrifield mobile phone chip, advanced LTE 7260 as well as Airmont, the next generation 14nm Atom. All these things are still in the future, but Intel wants to tell people that it can do 14nm next year, when the ARM alliance will barely be able to get to 22nm.

He didn’t go into any details, but he mentioned these things. He didn’t even say when Bay Trail starts shipping, but Niel Hand VP of tablet and performance PC at Dell said that they will announce a whole line of Bay Trail based devices later this year. We expect to see them shipping at the same time.

In 2014 all of a sudden both Intel and Nvidia have LTE, making them both more competitive against Qualcomm, who dominate this market, especially in the US.

Intel's Cedar Trail platform is powered by Cedar View mobile and desktop CPUs and the group name for the architecture is Saltwell. This is what Intel recently shared with its investors.

As we already said on several occasions, Cedar Trail Atoms are coming in Q4 2011 and they should last the whole 2012. The plan is to replace them with Silvermont 22nm Atoms in 2013 and you can expect better integration, faster cores and faster graphics. Only one year after that the next, next, next generation Atom comes in 14nm process with the codename Airmont. The year 2014 looks quite distant from now, and Airmont will have a tough job to fight against future generation of ARM architecture, beyond ARM 15.

By this time there should be many tablets and phones with quad-core CPUs inside, even though that might look like overkill from this point. Intel doesn’t plan to give up and after Ivy Bridge 22nm real man CPU for desktop, notebooks and server comes the Haswell new 22nm architecture that should debut in 2H 2012 and last the whole 2013 and in 2014 will get shrink to 14nm.